Nancy's Mixer gets a good workout!

annie1992

18 years ago

Some of you may remember that Nancy and Kim gave me a wonderful gift last summer, a Kitchen Aid mixer that they had replaced with a newer, bigger one.

This last week the mixer got a good workout. I made three birthday cakes, including a four layer "Funfetti" cake for Makayla, heartshaped with fuschia and purple frosting and decorated with TinkerBell. Bud got the banana cake posted by jgarner from Rose Levy Birnbaum, with cream cheese frosting. Amanda got a dark chocolate cake with peanut butter fudge frosting. All the cakes and all that buttercream frosting got whipped up lickety split in that Kitchen Aid, with only a small sugar slick to be dealt with, LOL.

Here is Makayla's cake, she requested "Funfetti" from a mix, ugh, with lots of pink frosting.

Bud wanted "trucks" so his cake became a construction zone with Oreo Cookie crumbs for a road and a pile of those crumbs for the loader to load into the dump truck:

Amanda? She really only likes the peanut butter fudge frosting, but I took the leftover purple from Makayla's cake and made some small rosebuds on hers.

All that mixing and baking and frosting took several hours but I sure appreciated that mixer, so thank you, Nancy, once again. The thing sure earned its counter space this weekend!

Annie

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Comments (17)

sheshebop
18 years ago
Three birthdays all around the same time? How unusual is that? Annie, your cakes are adorable. I really love the dump truck one the best. Adorable. I bet the little princess loved hers also.
pkramer60
18 years ago
Annie, you are the bestest Oma and Mom! Those cakes look wonderful and Nancy and Kim are angels for passing it on to a "good home".
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Hmmm....keep my mixer on the island?
Q
Comments (22)
Wow, super-mom. I was wondering if your heavy use is due to a large family or small home business ... Impressive to do so much from scratch and so much healthier. I have no appliances on the counters. My kitchen often looks like it does not involve cooking at all. Especially in the mornings. Starting any cooking project or experiment i need it empty and clean, dishwasher empty and sink clear. I'm constantly tweaking how it might work better. Our kitchen does have 4 seasons. Evolves throughout the year....baking more in the colder months, marble slab is out now replaced by a second cutting board in the spring. Sometimes all 4 seasons in one weekend. Like the recent 3 day holiday weekend during a snow storm. The mixer was out all weekend, and the juicer, and all three blender containers and a full counter of spices and seeds and flours. Just took a zippy 20 minutes to put it all away and douche the place. By monday afternoon it became a pasta making factory for dinner later, then a meat market, grinding for sausage. Even if i baked everyday, i would have to move it from the main baking area to give it a cleaning and start fresh as ingredients change with each project. Husband is a slob, but does agree about the kitchen. He makes coffee in the mornings and tends the dogs. Uses that time to meditate and 'zen' the kitchen. But that is our solution for peace and harmony. : ) His stuff and tools are everywhere all the time. Rarely puts anything away. Our solution? I have a half dozen heavy llbean canvas bags. One is by his office door, door shut, lol. I just put his 'stuff' in it. If he can't find anything, that is a good place to check first. It is always full. He empties it occasionally. Another bag by the stairs to downstairs where all the stuff and my stuff goes. I always thought the lift was a good idea but i could never actually use it on the platform. I need my mixer with ingredients right next to it, not behind it. Even in the photo flour is on the platform, so it is also all over the floor. Much easier to wipe the counter than the floor. I don't read panic or insanity in your written voice. Just looking for a way to make it work. I would leave it out for a few weeks on the island. You might just find it is a bugger-bear. Gotta move it to clean. Might as well move to the backsplash home. Think of it as a 'cleansing' for organizing thoughts and the next project. Make and bake three days worth of meals in a day and freeze. (i'm sure you do that)...but give the kitchen a break for a day or two a week, and keeping the island clear will keep the family in check. One rule, island clear. One thing i did was take a couple heirloom trays from my Grandmother and put hardware store lazy susans on the bottom. They are in my pantry but are easy to haul out to the work counter. One has smalls like vanilla, nutmeg nuts, etc. The other has my most used seeds and nuts and some baking supplies. I can leave those trays out all weekend but easy to carry and put away. I have one rule. Breakfast table clear always. Here it is after the weekend... : )
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Do you have a KA 6qt mixer?
Q
Comments (14)
UPDATE -- just got the mixer back. It is much quieter and the sound is much less objectionable. When they called to get approval on the cost, I asked what they were going to do and got a laundry list of parts being replaced. The repairs were $91 ($44 for labor and $47 for parts -- gears, pins and a whole list of things they didn't put on the invoice) and the shipping both ways (Fed Ex ground) plus sending me the box was $32, so the whole thing was a little over $125 including tax. That's less than I feared, less that the shop in Dallas quoted me and the shipping was less too, plus KA sent me the shipping box. It is still a lot, but at least I got personal attention and it appears I got the results I wanted. It just arrived back today and I have just plugged it in to hear it. I will have to test it in actual use now.
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KitchenAid mixer died!
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Comments (19)
Best bet is to do as dcarch advises...buy a couple of the replacement gears & learn how to replace them. AND, use a breadmaker (lots of them at garage sales for $5 and up) for mixing bread dough. I have a Hobart era KA and I've gone to using the breadmaker to mix bread and noodle dough. It's easier than using the KA and does as good as or better job of it. That & it saves wear & tear on the KA. The breadmaker that I have is an old Regal brand & it does a great job so don't feel that you must have one of the expensive models. I actually use the breadmaker more than I do the KA...have gone to making all my hamburger & brat buns because the commercial product is so awful. And expensive. I can make a way better bun and for a fraction of the cost of the much inferior grocery store product. Of course, the downside is having to find space for yet another bulky appliance but, if you can manage the room, it's the best solution.
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Good deal on a hand mixer
Q
Comments (4)
That's a good deal. Cooks Illustrated rated the KA 7 speed hand mixer as the best, this should be even better. I got one like it a few months ago and I'm very pleased. I wouldn't do bread dough with a hand mixer, but for everything else, it's wonderful. The angled handle is very comfy.
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Carol Schmertzler Siegel
18 years ago
Annie, those are such great cakes! I bet the Monkey princess was thrilled and you got lots and lots of tisses :) Did Bud try to play with his cake? I'd have made a beeline for Amanda's, chocolate and peanut butter, can't resist! Well done, Annie!

Where are the pictures of the kids?
lackboys3
18 years ago
Just beautiful!! They all look lovely and delicious, but the chocolate and peanut butter one would have gotten seriously demolished from me:-) Annie, you mentioned you had taken a cake decorating class a while back, and I was wondering if you could give me a bit more information on the class itself. Did you need to provide special equipment for the class, i.e., a pastry bag and tips?
DONNA
brenda55
18 years ago
Annie, my goodness, you were busy. I am sure the gk's loved their cakes, especially since they were made by Oma. What a really clever idea for Bud's cake, really cute. Your Tink cake is really cute, what is Tink standing on? Peanut butter frosting sounds like something my peanut-butter-loving DH would like. Would you share the recipe?

Brenda
wizardnm
18 years ago
Glad to see you put that mixer to work! The cakes are adorable...good work!

They all sound good.... a small piece of each please.

Nancy
mustangs81
18 years ago
Those are wonderful and creative. That's a lot of cake, did they overlap-were you having to eat cake at every meal?
sally2_gw
18 years ago
How fun and creative! You sure are talented.

I made a spur of the moment cake for my sister when I found out at the last minute she was coming for a visit on her Birthday, last Saturday. I was just pulling the cake out of the oven when she arrived. It didn't turn out nearly as pretty as yours...well, that's an understatement, but it was appreciated.

Sally
artsyshell
18 years ago
Beautiful cakes Annie! Great decorating. I am sure your family really appreciates all the time and effort you put into them!

Shelley
Solsthumper
18 years ago
You'd have to be a grump -or a commie- not to like those. Great job grams.

Sol
kathleen_li
18 years ago
Great job! I especially like the dump truck cake!!
annie1992
Original Author
18 years ago
Carol, there's a "birthday" thread on the Gallery, with pictures of the kids, me, the ex, Amanda and Ashley, even little Linsey, the miracle baby. (grin)

Donna, I paid $25 for the class and it included a basic "kit" with a couple of tips, couplers and a pastry bag. It was once a week for six weeks at a local tech school which has a culinary arts program. Of course, you could buy extra tips, bags, paste colors, wouldn't you know...

Brenda, the peanut butter frosting is easy, just a cup of peanut butter, a couple of tablespoons of butter and a pound of powdered sugar. Beat it up until smooth, add milk to make it the right consistency. Sweet, sticky, fudgy, peanut butter-y. It's not my favorite, but Amanda loves it.

Nancy, I saved a piece of each for you. Sure I did. Suddenly, they're just gone. Ahem. I think the kids must have eaten them.....or something. :-)

Cathy, we had one big birthday party for all three of them, so there was a "selection of desserts". Yup, you could have cake, cake or cake. Ice cream was optional but there was butter pecan and rocky road!

Annie
maggie2094
18 years ago
Your such a good Gran - no wait - not Gran - Glam or Glammie...heee

I would love the peanut butter frosting, too!
shaun
18 years ago
Great job. I especially love the dump trucks.
lackboys3
18 years ago
Thanks Annie, for the info regarding the cake decorating class. I'm going to check out the local community college to see if they have one, as it's something I've always wanted to do. Sometimes this Michael's Crafts store in Melbourne has some Wilton classes, I'm going to check those out too.
DONNA
doucanoe
18 years ago
Wow, Annie! You've been a busy girl! All of those cakes are awesome, and he dump truck cake is ingenious, but I like the hot pink one the best! LOL

Linda
vacuumfreak
18 years ago
You do make some lovely cakes! I am so glad that you now have a Kitchen Aid mixer and are putting it to good use :o)

Nancy's Mixer gets a good workout!

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Nancy's Mixer gets a good workout!

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